


Drifting Apart Without You

by Krasimer



Category: Just Like Heaven (2005), X-Men (Movies), X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Movie Fusion, F/M, M/M, What Have I Done, What Was I Thinking?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-29
Updated: 2013-09-29
Packaged: 2017-12-27 22:35:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/984411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krasimer/pseuds/Krasimer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erik Lehnsherr has been apartment hunting, trying to find that one amazing place. He needs it to be furnished, well lit, with a good view as an added bonus.</p><p>He does find a place. Too bad that it's already got a tenant.</p><p>A ghost by the name of Charles.</p><p> </p><p>(A 'Just Like Heaven' Fusion AU thing.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drifting Apart Without You

He's sitting in a garden, flowers and metal sculptures everywhere around him.

It's calm, and he sort of doesn't know how to handle that, at all, because his life is usually very hectic.

"Charles."

He ignores the voice, closes his eyes and leans back on the bench that he's sitting on.

"Charles. Charles."

He frowns, then takes one last look at the flowers, eyes shifting to look at the metal pieces again. They're beautiful works of art, unlike normal garden sculptures which tend to be unwieldy and awkward looking. The ones around him are chosen carefully for the size of the plants they sit next to.

"Charles!"

 

Charles Xavier grumbles, rubbing at his head. "You didn't have to shout, you know."

The nurse who woke him up, Moira, grins as he stands, offering a hand to help him up. "I did, actually. You fell asleep. You should go home, you've been here for ages now."

"If I want that Attending Physician slot, then I need to be here."

Moira made a face at him, handing him a cup of coffee. "Fairly certain nothing will matter if you fall asleep and fall onto a scalpel or something."

Charles made a face of his own, sipping at the coffee in the cheap paper cup. Hospital coffee was always disgusting. To him, it tasted like the bastard child of battery acid and some kind of cleaning fluid, most likely bleach. "This is horrible."

"It's what you get. You want better, pay for it yourself." she grinned as they left the break room.

They reached the end of the hallway, then separated. She went to the nurse's station, he went to receive orders from his boss.

"Charles! Hank!" 

Both of them stood up straighter in front of their boss. Miss Frost was a hard-ass, but she actually was a very dedicated doctor, and Charles found himself enjoying working for her despite the fact that she seemed angry all the time.

"Male gunshot victim. Who has been here less time?" She turned to Charles, then shot a look at Hank. With a sigh, Charles muttered, "I've been here twenty-seven hours."

"Eleven hours." Hank mumbled, looking at his shoes. 

"Hank's been here for less, he's getting this one." Emma decreed, then watched as the younger doctor walked off. "You're good at your job, Charles. You're great at your job. You actually care about your patients. The only instance of you using your powers is to get the children to stop crying."

"I hear a but..." he sighed again, running a hand through his hair. "What's the next part of that?"

"The next part of it 'You get the Attending Physician Slot', actually." she smiled, an actual smile. Not the predatory one she normally gave people, but a nice one for once. "But you have to go home now. You're apparently trying for two days, and you're going to drop dead before that happens. Go home, get food, rest, see your sister and her family."

He never questioned how she knew these things.

"See you on Monday, Charles." With that, she walked away. 

 

Out in the parking lot, Charles rummaged through his messenger bag, trying to find his keys. He'd just brushed his hand over them, tugged them out and was trying to fit them into the car door when his phone rang.

"Hello Raven." he chuckled when she protested his greeting, saying that she could have been anyone. "I do have caller ID, you know."

"Fine, Charles, mock me all you want." he could hear her sticking her tongue out at him. "Anyways, I called to tell you that your date hasn't shown up yet. He's not usually late, but he did call and tell me that he would be today. Which means that you have time to get all fancy before he gets here, instead of wearing the clothes I know that you're still in from yesterday."

"I do not wear my street clothes when I'm on duty." Charles chided, pulling out of the parking spot. "I wear my scrubs."

"Yeah, well, I know that you put the outfit you're wearing on yesterday. So come here, grab the spare set you keep at my house, get yourself all pretty for him."

Charles rolled his eyes. "How do you know he'll even like me? He might not be as into me as you said he would be."

"I know his type, Charles. You fit it. Very well, I might add." 

A blaring horn interrupted Charles's next sentence, his eyes snapping up to meet with the truck drivers. A second later, Raven was screaming across the phone line and Charles wasn't in any shape to respond, everything fading to black.

He wasn't going to make his date.

 

XxXxX

 

"So you're certain that it has to be furnished?" 

Erik glared at his Realtor. "Salvador, you have about thirty seconds to make up your mind not to ask me that question again."

She rolled her eyes at him, then grabbed his hand and rushed across the street, somehow avoiding traffic. "C'mon then, some places were recently listed on Fifth and Junction."

A gust of wind pulled her hair away from her face and shoulders, showing a glimpse of what everyone would think were tattoos, rather than her mutation.

Unfortunately, that same wind blew a paper into Erik's face, causing him to come to a sudden stop on the edge of the sidewalk. With a grumble, he pulled it away from him, then read the writing on it.

'Apartment for monthly lease, fully furnished. Contact Armando Munoz for details.'

Below that was the address and the number of the man to contact.

When Angel finally realized that he had stopped and had come back for him, he handed it to her. "Your taste in apartments is atrocious. Let's look at this one."

Angel pouted at him, fluttering movements under the sleeves of her shirt telling him that she was a bit mad at the comment. "Fine. Let's look at the apartment that didn't have the balls to be listed by an actual company."

Erik smirked as she stalked off, following at a more sedate pace.

 

"Yes, this apartment is indeed a monthly rental." the man, Armando, informed then when Angel asked if that was true. "There's some circumstances surrounding it, but I've been told not to divulge those. Family matters, you know how it is."

Erik looked at the furniture around him.

Unlike the apartments that Angel had been showing him, this actually looked like a place he could live in. There were no random  
'Sculptural Couches' or paintings of fat old men and women in powdered wigs. There were no cat or dog statues, and the place was blessedly free of anything to do with 'Woman Power!'.  
There were books.

"Why..." he frowned, then shook his head and asked a different question. The one he had been about to ask had already been answered. "How much is it per month?"

"It's twelve hundred a month, which is actually a decent price for the space you're getting here." Armando smiled, nervously running a hand through the short hair on his head and tugging softly at his earring. "It is a two bedroom apartment, two bathrooms as well. It comes with WiFi, all the furnishings, a great view, and a rooftop garden. The man who lived here before didn't do much with it, though."

Erik could feel the metal in the place vibrating, could hear all of it almost singing at his presence. 

"What about-"

"I'll take it." Erik interrupted Angel. "I think it's perfect."

Armando smiled. "It was lived in by a mutant, if that's going to be a problem."

With a roll of his eyes, Erik pulled a pen out of the man's pocket by the metal in it, hand waving slightly to take the cap off. "It's not going to be."

"I'll get you the paperwork then." Armando smiled.

 

Erik had been living there for a week when it happened.

A man with fairly long brown hair and beautiful blue eyes was in his living room. With slow movements, Erik set his beer down on the coffee table and summoned the hunk of metal he kept on the desk to his hand. Within a couple of seconds, he had it flowing around his fingers.

"Who are you, and why are you in my flat?"

Alright then, that was weird.

Erik let the metal fall to the floor with a soft clang. "What?"

"You are in my home. Why?" 

Those blue eyes narrowed dangerously, and Erik felt his head hurt slightly. "Because I live here."

"I'm calling the police." the man headed towards the other room, and try as he might, Erik couldn't remember him opening the door.

When he followed the man, however, he had disappeared. 

Blinking, confused, Erik went back to his beer in the other room. "Apparently this is too much tonight." he muttered, shoving it back into the fridge. 

 

"I am telling you," Azazel grumbled at him, clicking his pen rapidly. "You should stop drinking so much."

"I barely drink." Erik snarked, grinning like a shark when the other mutant raised an eyebrow at him and the drink in his hand. "I'm just seeing an attractive man in my apartment. At random times. Most recently when I got out of the shower."

"What happened to that date you had set up a couple months back?" Azazel changed the subject abruptly, raising a hand for another shot of vodka. "Did anything ever come from them?"

"It was going to be a man, and no, nothing happened. I kind of..."

Grumbling in Russian, Azazel downed his shot. "Meaning you abandoned it before it began because you're still all hung up on her."

"I am not hung up." Erik growled softly at him, "I just don't feel like seeing anyone right now."

He finished his beer and pulled out the money for his tab, slapping it down on the counter and gesturing at the barman. "And we are done discussing this."

"For now." Azazel muttered. "Need a lift?"

Raising an eyebrow, Erik pointed at the small stack of bills, more than enough for the both of them, then held out an arm. 

Wordlessly, Azazel took it.

 

With the smell of sulpher in the air, Azazel took off again, leaving Erik in his bedroom.

"Not hung up." Erik muttered to no one in particular, stripping off his pants and folding them neatly. "It was four years ago, not hung up at all."

"Whoever you're attempting to convince, I don't think it's working." came the now almost familiar voice. 

With a sigh, Erik turned to look at the man next to him. "What's your name, anyways? Who are you, why are you here?"

"My name is Charles." the man told him, "And I don't remember who I am. I don't even remember where I go when we're not talking."

They'd talked enough by now that Charles had stopped running for the phone every time he saw Erik.

It had helped, of course, when Charles had found out that his hand passed through the phone. That had been an odd day for him.

By this point, Erik had been living in what Charles called 'His Flat' for over a month and a half.

"So you're just now telling me your name?"

Charles shrugged his shoulders in discomfort, making himself as small as possible. It didn't seem like he was aware he was doing it, either. "I didn't remember it before."

"Ghost." Erik muttered, eyes fogging over as he headed straight for the bed and lay down on it. "I've said it before."

"And I've said before, I am not. You're just invading my home."

Erik made a sleepy sound of disagreement, eyes closing. In his boxers, his shirt and his watch still on, he fell asleep on top of the covers.

Charles settled into the chair at the desk, watching the man on the bed and frowning. "Of course," he whispered "I don't know why I'm not actually upset that you're here."

 

XxXxX

 

On Azazel's suggestion, Erik was standing outside of a book shop.

The banner at the top labeled it 'Banshee's Books!', and it he were to list the things that bothered him about this store, that damned exclamation point would be at the top of the list. The smaller sign underneath the annoying one proclaimed it to be a mutant bookstore, specializing in rare mutations. 

Also in Occult and aliens.

When he entered the shop and came face to face with a red haired young man, little more than a teenager, he nearly turned right around and left again. 

"Hello!" the young man was nearly as loud as the sign out front.

Erik exhaled loudly, trying to convey his exasperation with the boy without actually talking. In return, all he got was a goofy grin, a hand scruffling through the bright red curls, and a nervous laugh.

"I'm Sean." the boy fumbled over the words, sticking out a hand. "Or Banshee, really. I run this place. It's mine! We just opened a couple of weeks ago, this is a branch location. My dad started it, and he runs the main one a couple of towns over."

"That's nice." Erik muttered. "Would you happen to have any books about ghosts and hauntings? More specifically, would you happen to have anything about how to convince a ghost to go into the light or whatever it is?"

Sean (Erik was not calling him Banshee.) gave him a look. "Dude. To help a ghost, you have to be..." 

"What?"

"Nice." Sean gave him another look, backing away a few steps before he started walking towards the right section in the store. 

"C'mon then, we're going to look at ghost books."

 

Erik craned his neck to look at the entire book shelf.

Sean, it turned out, had a floor to ceiling shelf on the subject of ghosts and helping them cross over. There were research papers, there were books, there were movies, and then there were the audio books.

He sighed and turned back to Sean, an eyebrow raised. "Where should I start?"

Behind him, he could see the flicker of movement that betrayed Charles's presence. Sean didn't seem to notice.

"Well..." Sean stretched up on his toes, grabbing the edge of the shelf and reaching for something a bit higher. "You see that book there? The one my fingers are on? That one, the one next to it, and the one five books to the right. Start with those and see where it gets you."

Erik reached above the boy's head with a growl, tugging all three books down easily. "You should have a ladder."

With that, he took the books over to a chair and sat down, grumbling as Charles settled in next to him. "I'm still not a ghost."

Erik waved him off, eyebrows furrowing as he read.

Watching Erik, Sean shrugged and went to the backroom. "Call me if you need me, man!"

"Right..." 

 

"Apparently the best way to get rid of you," Erik began, muttering under his breath "Is to have an exorcist come in to talk to you."

Charles rolled his eyes, crossed his arms, and glared at Erik. 

Erik glanced at him briefly, then looked back down at the books. The man really had been attractive. If he had been alive, Erik would even have considered asking him out. "You're almost my type. That's not nearly enough to keep you around, though."

"I am not a ghost!"

"Apparently you are. You can't touch things, I'm the only one who can see you, and you're not able to remember anything other than that apartment was yours and your first name is Charles." Erik scowled at the book, slamming it closed and abandoning the illustration of a ghost banishing ritual. In his mind, that was positively barbaric. "And I don't want you to pop up in the mirror when I'm shaving again, you nearly made me slit my own throat."

"And I have apologized for that, my friend." Charles shrugged, incredibly blue eyes focused on something only he could see. "But you must believe me. I am no ghost, I am quite sure that I would be able to tell if I were."

Erik gave an exasperated flounce, arms flailing as he dragged his bag into his lap. "Why are you so sure that you're not a ghost? Were you a mutant with a body walking ability? Were you somehow able to separate yourself? If not, I'm claiming ghost!"

"I was a TELEPATH!" Charles snarled.

With a wince, Erik backed away from him, a hand flying to his head. With the anger that Charles was showing, a dozen or more voices had suddenly burst into his head. He could hear them all screaming and crying. Within a few seconds, they were silent again, but Erik still had a hand to his head and was breathing hard.

"And apparently, as a ghost, you've kept your abilities." Erik spoke softly, like he was trying to placate him. "Because you just shoved people's thoughts into my head. And they were screaming."

Charles's jaw dropped, eyes going wide as his arms fell to hang at his sides. "I apologize for that. I don't know how..."

"I'm going home now. Follow me or not, but it might be easier if you did, because I am going to be getting some people in to help you."

Neither of them spoke as they left the bookstore, Erik shaking his head at Sean as they walked.

 

XxXxX

 

The first person who responded to his ad about getting rid of the ghost had been some sort of priest. 

The only problems with him trying were two things.

One: He got water everywhere. Erik understood the whole fixation on holy water being used on ghosts, needing to cleanse the area. He got that, he did. 

But did the guy really need to splash it liberally on the floor?

And Two: After splashing the water everywhere he could reach, the priest had found out that Erik was Jewish, and had promptly spent more time trying to convert him than actually trying to help Charles find the light.

It was shortly after that when Erik pulled him by the metal of his clothing and deposited him outside of the door, locking it with an angry wave of his hand.

"That," Charles began, "Was incredibly silly."

Erik snorted, shrugged, then grabbed a beer from the fridge. "Don't forget useless."

"Not entirely. I learned two things from it. You're Jewish, and you're a Metallokinetic." Charles drifted closer to him. "And if I didn't already know, you drink to help yourself cope with complicated situations."

"You," Erik met his eyes, priding himself on only losing focus for a second this time "Are an increasingly complicated situation. I like complicated situations, because I feel so much better when I solve them. Easy ones are a drain on my mental resources."

Charles beamed. "I'm glad I'm of some use then."

"Right." Erik muttered.

 

The next couple of weeks saw several potential helpers come and go, each one disappointing and worse than the last.

With each day that passed, Erik was growing steadily more nervous. 

Charles had somehow gained a place in Erik's dreams. Not in any innocuous dreams either, the hot and heavy, wake-up-to-change-your-pants ones. Erik was attracted to the spirit of the man haunting his apartment, and there was no way that it would end well.

So, of course, that was when Sean showed up.

"Dude." Erik looked up at Sean, a glare on his face. "This is the most amazing place, I can see why you dig it."  
"Thank you." Erik replied tersely. "Are you here to actually do anything about this, or are you just going to stare at the decore?"

Sean gave him a lopsided smile, then ran a hand along the wall. "He's a strong spirit. Very much present and here and all. You sure you want him gone?"

"Yes." Erik shot a look at Charles.

Charles, who was leaning against the wall, wearing the same cardigan and pants that he had worn since the first time Erik had seen him. "I'm not sure I want me gone, my friend." Charles spoke up, looking at Sean. "Would you mind telling him, young man? I do not wish to leave."

"Wow..." Sean muttered before Erik could find some way to respond. "He really doesn't want to leave here. Dude, he likes it here a lot. Loves it. It is his home, it's where he belongs. He doesn't feel like he's dead. He still feels alive, dude."

"Not while I'm living here." Erik groused, folding his arms over his chest. Charles simply shrugged and crossed the room, settling on the couch next to him. "He's interfering with my life."

"Kinda seems like he isn't the only spirit haunting you." Sean giggled, rubbing at his nose. "There's another one. Your wife."

Erik's face dropped into a blank expression and Charles backed away from him, blue eyes wide in fear. "Erik..."

"You know nothing about her." he whispered, fingers tightening on the arm of the couch. Every scrap of metal in the apartment was humming now, the filing cabinet in the corner shuffling and clacking. Even the spoons and forks in the sink were jumping around.

"Dude, I-"

"I think you should leave." Erik gestured towards the door with his hand, not breaking eye contact with Sean when the door opened slowly. "Now."

"I-"

"NOW."

Sean fled out the open door, Erik slamming it with a flex of his fingers. All at once, the entire apartment fell silent as the metal stopped humming. 

Erik sat on the couch for a few minutes, still staring at the wall. Just when Charles was about to speak, he brought his knees to his chest and buried his face in them, tangling his fingers in his hair.

"Erik?"

Startled, Erik raised his head from his knees. "Charles." he managed shakily. 

"Who was your wife?"

Somehow it didn't feel like an invasion when Charles asked him about it. "Her name was Magda. We'd been married for a year. She had a..." he twitched his hand near his head, eyes closing as he remembered. "A brain...Thing. An aneurysm. Or-or a blood clot. The doctors told me, but at the time, I just kind of..."

"You were distraught. Perfectly understandable." Charles whispered. "You couldn't understand how life would be alright without her."

"Yes." Erik nodded, running his fingers over his knees, tugging at the cuffs of his pants. "She died giving birth to our children.  
The blood pressure was...Too much for the thing in her head, and she just sort of..."

Charles looked paler, looked even more like a ghost than usual. "She died bringing, what, twins into this world?"

"Twins." Erik nodded. "Wanda and Pietro."

"Where are they, your children? I've not seen them in the entire time that you've lived here."

"They live with their grandparents. I visit them at least once a week." Erik shrugged, wrapping his arms around his knees. "They live with them until I want to take them back. I think I'm taking them back when they turn four. We've been talking to them, seeing if they wanted to live with me. Wanda was so scared at first when we started discussing it, she thought she was never going to see her grandmother again."

"You sound fond of them."

Erik nodded again, roughly brushing the few small tears from his face with the heel of his hand, almost bruising the bone underneath. "I am incredibly fond of them. I have been since the moment they were born. They just looked so much like their mother when they were given to me after she..."

Charles's lips parted, and if he had been corporeal, he would have cried. "You lost your wife and were given her children. It is quite understandable that you could not stand it."

"I..." Erik stood abruptly, racing around the apartment and dragging his coat on, then locating his shoes and nearly tearing the laces because of how tightly he tied them. "I'm going now."

"What? Erik, you can't, you're emotionally-"

"Shut up!" Erik snapped, eyes wild, hand clutching his phone. "I am calling Azazel, and I am going to go drink until I can handle the world again."

Before Charles could answer or try to stop him, Erik had run out the door, the metal almost forcing itself apart from how hard he'd yanked it closed.

Seeing no other choice, Charles followed.

 

True to his word, Erik had settled down at a bar, on a stool, with Azazel perching next to him seconds after he made the call.

"You should not be drinking when you are like this." the red mutant scolded, tapping two fingers on the edge of the bar. "You know this."

Erik snarled wordlessly, clenching his hands into fists around the edge of the bar.

"And you know when to leave me be."

Azazel twitched, his eyes blinking rapidly for a second. When Erik noticed, he frowned. "What?"

"I just thought I heard..." Azazel shook his head, looking behind them. 

Erik felt a a wave of cold shoot through him, heard Charles whisper an apology, and then he was unable to control his own body. For a moment, he sat stiffly on the bar stool, then he stood and swayed out the door, Charles's poor control causing him to walk like he was already drunk.

Once they were out the door, Charles pulled back from Erik's mind, leaning against the wall like he needed the support. "You were going to drink yourself away. You cannot do that, my friend, I will not let you!"

"Why not!" Erik snarled it, letting his anger get the best of him. All the metal in the street shook, from the signs and streetlights to the hubcaps on the cars zipping past. "Why won't you let me just-"

"Because you have children! Because you are the man who represents their entire family now, besides their grandparents!" 

Charles shot back, the voices echoing softly in Erik's mind. "And because, just a little selfishly, I need you to find out who I was!"

It was a little like someone had snuffed out a candle. One moment, Erik had been prepared to throw every scrap of metal that he could feel at the illusion of a man standing in front of him, the next he was breathing heavily and everything was settling back to where it should be.

"You need my help?"

Charles nodded, calming down now that Erik didn't seem so murderous. "I can't remember who I am, can't remember who I was. I need your help with that, and if you've drunk yourself into an oblivion, you can hardly help me."

It took a few minutes, but Erik finally nodded. "I will help you. I have to help you, because if I don't, then I have to admit to myself that I've been talking to nothing, and that there never was anyone there."

"I would never allow you to be insane." Charles grinned. "It's far too much fun to watch you be sane, my friend."

"You've interrupted my drinking and now you're mocking me." Erik bared his teeth at him, no real venom behind the gesture. "You will be the very death of me."

"Considering that you call me a ghost most of the time, I dare say that me causing you a little trouble is a fair price to pay."

 

XxXxX

 

They started with the apartment building.

Of course, it might have been a mistake to start at the first floor, where they ran into an old woman who had no idea what Erik was talking about. 

After shrugging off her offers of tea and various baked goods, Erik managing to be nice about it, they moved to the next floor up.

And then the next floor.

As they moved through the building, one thing became very clear. Whoever Charles had been, he'd never socialized with the people he lived above. Erik had also run into Armando, the man who had shown him the apartment in the first place.

That conversation hadn't gone very well, and it had ended with Alex, Arma-Darwin's roommate (And possibly more, based on the possessive way he had grabbed onto Darwin's arm) pushing Erik up the stairs. Judging by the glare on Alex's face, the laughter that Darwin was trying to unsuccessfully hide, and the rumpled appearance of their clothing, Erik had interrupted something.

Now he knew, at least, to not try and bother them when they might be doing something together.

Based on how little he knew of their schedules, he might never speak to them again.

When they got to the floor right below Erik's apartment, they ran into a man named Janos Quested. Janos gave Erik a smile, dark eyes flickering up and down his body appreciatively as they spoke.

"Erik, he is eyeing you like you are a piece of meat. Please tell me that this is not the person you are trusting with the recollection of me." 

When Janos's back was turned, Erik grimaced at Charles. "I don't think I am."

Janos chose that moment to return, holding out a manicured hand with a small piece of white paper trapped between his fingers. "Here it is. He once helped me out with a troublesome...Friend. Told me to call him if I needed help. Didn't think much of it, never took him up on it."

"A 'Friend'?" Erik made the accompanying air quotes, eyes narrowed. "What happened?"

Shaking his head, Janos laughed. "No no no, nothing bad at all. Someone I brought home with me that wouldn't take no for an answer. Charles raised a hand to his head and was quiet for a minute before the guy frowned, turned away, and just left me alone. Stopped trying anything, stopped contacting me. After that, I didn't want him to, so I never called him either."

"And is everyone in this building a mutant?" Erik muttered. "Because there seems to be an awful lot of them here."

"That depends," Janos grinned. "On whether you are or not." Another sweep of Erik's body, this time with a smirk on his lips. 

In answer, Erik pulled the door closed, waving goodbye to Janos as it swung shut. 

"I do believe that he was angling on getting into your bed." Charles muttered.

Erik nearly choked on his own saliva. "Not happening. It's been a while, but no."

Looking at the card in his hand, Erik sighed. It was simple, plain black and white, no flourishes or unnecessary information. It was understated without being pompous, and Erik felt that it suited the man he had come to know. 

"What does it say?"

"It says that you're named Charles Xavier." Erik scans it again. "And that you worked at the hospital a couple of blocks over. The big modern looking one, all comfortable and doesn't smell like antiseptic in the waiting rooms."

"Now we know where to look." Charles smiled at him, his lips looking more colorful than they had before. "Can we go?"

Erik nodded slowly. "I think so."

 

XxXxX

 

A couple of days later, Erik walked into the hospital, Charles following quietly along behind him. 

Neither of them spoke, and Erik had both of his hands tucked deep within his coat pockets. Charles had his hands curled together in front of him, finger-less gloves almost obscuring the pale skin. 

Stepping up to the front desk and asking about Charles Xavier made the nurse behind it, the one talking to the other receptionist, gasp quietly and drop a pencil.

Erik held out a hand and caught it quickly before it hit the ground, lifting it back up through the air to land back in her hand. 

"That's the best way to break the lead." he muttered, watching as she opened and closed her mouth like a fish.

"You wanted to know about Charles?" came a deceptively soft voice from behind him. When Erik turned to look, he came face to face with a blonde woman. She had sharp nails that were almost digging into the clipboard she was holding. The tips of them sparkled strangely, and Erik had to lean closer to look at them, frowning.

She simply smirked and allowed it to crawl further up her hands. "My mutation allows for my skin to become diamond-like. Under enough pressure, it breaks, so it's not a true diamond. You were asking about Charles?"

"Yes. I recently rented out his apartment and I heard he was a doctor. Pretty good one, if I remember right. I wanted to know what happened to him, why it's a monthly lease rather than a yearly one."

"Oh sugar..." the blonde woman gestured for him to follow her. "He was a brilliant doctor. And maybe, if he wakes up, he will be again. Every day that passes makes the chances of that drop lower and lower, but there is still hope."

They stopped outside of a door. "My name is Emma Frost. I'm the Head Doctor of this hospital, and Charles was the best on my staff. Besides the shared mutation, he often challenged me when he swore that I was wrong about something." she laid a hand on the door, palm and fingers flat. "He was always right. It only happened a few times, but he was always right."

Erik's frown deepened. "What do you mean, 'if he wakes up'?"

"I mean," she pushed open the door quietly. "That he got into an accident about five months back now. He was on his way to his sister's house, to have dinner with her and her kids." Inside the room were two beds.

One of them was empty, the blankets stripped from it and the machinery turned off.

The other bed was occupied by a man that was an even paler version of the one he had spent two months talking to. Charles finally parted from his side, silently trailing across the room and dropping a hand onto his own chest.

"Erik..." he whispered. "I can't feel my own pulse."

Emma cleared her throat, then nodded at the bed. "I'll let you be alone for a few minutes."

"Thank you." Erik murmured, still watching Charles investigate his own body. "You don't have to..."

"You need a few minutes." Emma shrugged, then turned and left without another word.

When she was gone, Erik walked across the room, following Charles's path almost exactly. He stopped short of the other man, but as they stood there in silence for a minute, he noticed something.

"You're acting like you're breathing."

Charles looked up, an eyebrow raised. "Am I? I didn't even notice."

Pulling a chair up next to the bed, Erik sat down, watching Charles interact with his own flesh. "Could you feel it if I touched your hand, do you think?"

"I don't know." Charles met his gaze, then turned back to his body on the bed. "I have hardly any more experience with this than you do. I suppose anything is possible."

Instead of replying, Erik pressed their fingers together, carefully avoiding the wires and tubes that were stuck into Charles. 

Charles was appearing to breathe faster now, pulling back from his own body. "It doesn't hurt, but I wish you would stop, my friend. It feels strange."

"I'm sorry." Erik muttered, pulling back completely as well. "I did not intend for you to feel strange about your body."

They sat there for another minute, both watching the air being breathed for what remained of Charles. When more words were spoken, it was Charles.

"I told you I wasn't a ghost."

"I believe that, technically," Erik smirked at him "You still are. Ghost can mean one whose spirit is simply seperated from their physical form."

"Yes, but the most common usage of the word is a spirit of a dead person wandering around in the world."  
They fell silent again. 

"Erik?"

"Yes?"

"I'm going to stay here with my body."

And just like that, Erik Lehnsherr's world was ending again.

 

The next day, Erik visited Charles in the hospital, setting a small vase of flowers on the bedside table as he walked in. 

"I never did ask," Charles started, curled up next to his body, floating in the air. "What is it that you do for a living?"

Erik shrugged, pulling a chair closer to sit next to both halves of Charles. "I worked as a metal sculptor. I made mostly garden decorations, and I was damned good at what I did."

"You stopped?"

"I branched out." Erik gave him a tight lipped smile. "Much different."

"Branched out into what?" Charles was still watching his body. "Could you tell me please? I need some reminder that the world isn't limited to this small room and the empty body that I am supposed to inhabit."

"I started crafting the gardens themselves. I have an apparently good hand with green and growing things, and since I was creating decorations for them anyways, it seemed like an easy transition."

Charles nodded, then shifted slightly in the air, eyes already looking distant. "Thank you, my friend."

"I am glad that you could call me a friend." Erik stood, pushing the chair back to where it was supposed to sit. "I should go now."

"Alright..." Charles whispered, sounding like he was fading away.

Erik left without speaking to him again.

 

Charles had learned how to navigate the hospital as a spirit rather than a person.

He'd found out a couple of things while doing so. He'd found out that Hank had gotten the position that Charles himself had been working towards. He'd found out that the younger man was entirely unsuited to it, that he was unsure of himself and he often felt like he wasn't good at his job at all.

Charles tried his best to cheer Hank up, but there was little that he could do.

He'd found out that Moira had become a little less of a nice person. She smiled less these days, and when her bosses ordered her around, she'd started to talk back to them. The last time he saw her was when she had been put on a suspension.

Charles saw a great many things in the hospital.

Few things he liked. With few other options, Charles returned to his body and ignored the rest of the hospital room he was being kept in.

 

A few hours later, the door swung open.

Raven was stepping across the threshold, tears already drowning her eyes. Behind her was Emma Frost, clipboard in hand and frown on her face. 

"You're sure you want to do this?" she asked softly. "Raven, you know that not even your brother would survi-"

"I know." Raven whispered, eyes closing as she watched the body in the bed. Next to her, Charles was trying desperately to get her attention. When his hand traced across her shoulder, her skin shifted slightly, turning normal human flesh colored for a second. "And if I leave him here to rot, his brain slowly fading away into nothing, on the off chance that the brother I love very much will wake up, what will happen? He might wake up broken beyond any recognition of anyone he ever used to know. It's better this way. He told me once that losing his mind would destroy him."

She placed a hand on his shoulder, thin and bony where it poked out from underneath the blankets. "And I don't want to lose him completely."

"Understandable." Emma murmured, looking at Charles's body in a strange way. Raven turned tail and nearly ran out the door, muffled sobs following her all the way. 

"C'mon sugar," Emma stood close to the bed and sighed. "You've got to wake up. She's giving you another week before she pulls the plug, and if there is some way that you can hear me, please listen to me and get yourself back to being conscious."

Charles followed his sister's example and fled through the wall, flitting at a nearly screaming pace back to Erik's apartment.

 

XxXxX

 

When he got there, however, Erik wasn't alone.

Janos was there, shirt unbuttoned and jeans riding low on his hips. It was enough to make Charles flush a strange shade of red, almost like he was trying to imitate Erik's friend Azazel.

"Erik, you have company...I shall talk to you in a bit." Charles barely stopped on his way up to the roof from the rooms below. It took less than two minutes for Erik to follow him.

"Ah...So I take it I walked in on the end of your activities then?" Charles looked anywhere but Erik's eyes, feeling like he was being swallowed by something with teeth larger than his head and an appetite to match. It felt like he was going to be consumed entirely, and there was no way out. "I am sorry for walking in at all. I did choose where I was staying."

Erik choked on his laughter. "No, Charles. You didn't walk in on anything. Janos has a date tonight with a young man he met a few weeks ago. Apparently they've been...Shall we say benefiting? From each other since then, but the man asked him out for a proper date. Janos was asking my opinion on what he should wear."

Charles didn't answer him, still staring off the edge of the building. He could just see the sky dimming as the sun went down, and it made him want Erik to be able to hold onto him. "My sister is going to pull me off of life support. Apparently, with every day that passes, more of my brain is risked. She doesn't want to lose me like that, so she's going to perform what she thinks is an act of mercy."

"She's going to kill you?"

"Yes." Charles looked around now. "Strange how dying makes me wish I'd done more, even when thinking I was already dead didn't. I was going to put up a fantastic garden up here, make everything beautiful and shady and green and living, then spend my free time up here with my books and the sunshine."

"I'm not going to let you die." Erik stepped closer to Charles. "You're going to work on your garden up here until you have it the way you like it, and I am never going to let you die."

 

XxXxX

 

"Sean."

The redheaded boy jumped, a small shriek bursting the glass sitting on the counter in front of him. "Erik! How're things going?"

Erik shrugged, mouth set in a determined line. "How would I go about getting a spirit back inside their body?"

Sean's entire face lit up, the grin he now wore stretching it and making him look slightly deranged. "He's not dead?"

"He's in a coma. Next closest thing." Erik growled when Sean didn't say anything to that. "How would I go about getting him back into his body?"

"Dude, not sure you should focus on that."

"Why not?"

"Where is he, right now?"

Erik placed a hand as close to Charles's shoulder as he possibly could without passing through him. "He is standing right here, Cassidy."

"Right. And I can't see him. I'm willing to bet that no one else you've talked to can either." Sean came out from behind the counter, approaching carefully. "You should probably focus on why you're the only one who can see him."

"We should go see my sister." Charles muttered, stepping backwards slightly, removing Sean's foot from his own. "She might be able to...No, she didn't see me at the hospital, why would she see me now?"

"Who is your sister?" Erik raised an eyebrow. "I never actually thought to ask you, everything has been insane lately, and you've never told me either."

"Much for the same reason."

Sean looked between Erik and the spot that he could only see as thin air. "Go see his sister. She'll probably have some answers for you."

"She's signing paperwork to pull him off life support. I probably only have a few days, and I still have to get to know her and convince her that I'm not psychotic." Erik grumbled, already making a mental list of steps to take. "She's probably going to try and shove me through a window when I tell her that I can see her brother's spirit."

"Oh surely not, Raven is a bit more rational than that." Charles protested, frowning. "If she knows you're telling the truth, she won't try to hurt you."

Erik stared at him, jaw dropping. "...What?"

"What?"

"Did you just say that your sister's name is Raven?" Erik looked like he was fumbling for his words, mouthing soundlessly. "As in Raven Darkholme?"

"...Yes?" Charles's eyebrows shot upwards, almost high enough to meet his hairline. "Why?"

Sean held up his hands and backed off, a panicked look on his face. "This is between you two."

He ran into the backroom as Erik stayed just staring at Charles, mouth hanging open slightly in shock.

"Erik? Are you alright?"

Nodding slowly, Erik nearly ran to his car. "Charles, we need to go see her. Now."

 

On the drive across town, Charles had tried to give Erik instructions on how to get to his sister's house, but Erik just brushed them off, muttering things. The only words that Charles could hear and actually understand were 'Already know.'

"Erik, are you alright?"

Erik turned in his seat, turning the car off. They were outside of Raven's house, and Erik's face was a strange mottled pink color. 

"I don't think so. But I need to go speak with Raven, because she's about to kill you without knowing that you're still here."

He got out of the car, making his way up the path to the front door.

When it opened, Raven's face lit up slightly, but she still looked extremely unhappy. "Erik. How're you doing?"

"I need to speak with you, Raven. It's about your brother."

Raven pulled back, frowning, before she moved to the side and let him in, Charles following silently. 

Inside the house was Raven's seven year old son, Kurt. Blue skinned like his mother, Kurt had his father's abilities, and more than a little bit of his uncle's temperament. Forgiving and nice, he made for a very sweet small child.

"Let's go into the kitchen. Kurt doesn't like discussing his uncle like this, and he doesn't forgive those who do very easily."

"Understandable."

They settled in at the small table in the kitchen, Raven pausing to start the coffee maker. "Sorry. I was playing with Kurt, wasn't prepared for anyone to come visit me."

"How are you two doing today? Adjusting well to the whole...Situation?"

Azazel and Raven had broken off their engagement shortly before Kurt's seventh birthday. It had been a quiet affair, neither one had particularly had their heart broken by the other, but Erik's knowledge of it made Charles's jaw drop.

Raven shrugged, a sly smile on her face. "His reasons for it were limited to the fact that I didn't have the natural equipment that he wanted, and he said he didn't feel right, making me assume a different form for long periods of time. Despite the shifting abilities, I am indeed female. At least, even with it, I still identify as a girl, anyways."

"Can't say I'm surprised by that." Erik shrugged when she giggled at him. "He does spend a strange amount of time staring at men."

"The reason that you're visiting though, you wanted to talk about Charles?" She stood and pulled two mugs down from the cupboard, pouring coffee into them and grabbing the bowl of sugar off the counter. "You still don't like milk in your coffee, right?"

"Right." he looked into the mug she handed him, sorting out his thoughts before he spoke. "Charles is still around. You can't pull him off life support yet."

Apparently, he wasn't sorting them into as useful an argument as he wanted.

Raven paused in adding sugar to her drink, spoon poised above her mug and her eyes wide. "What?"

"Charles is still around. He's been talking to me and, quite frankly, getting on my nerves with it at times. We've been talking and fighting and discussing and you really can't sign the paperwork that will allow them to kill him, you can't Raven. I know that I don't get a say because I'm not family, but you can not allow them to do that to him." Erik pushed his coffee away from him, away from the edge of the table, and shoved his fingers into his hair. "You really can't."

"Erik..." Both siblings said it at the same time. Raven said it with regret.

Charles had said it like he was amazed with the man in front of him. "Erik, you're really trying to keep me alive, aren't you?"

"I've already signed the papers." Raven whispered, eyes sliding closed. "They've already set up a time and date to pull him off."

Erik stuttered, then swore softly in German, jaw working as he thought. "There must be something you can do."

"I can tell you when it's happening. If you're hearing him, that might b-"

"I'm seeing him as well." Erik held up a hand before she could speak again. "For some reason, I'm the only one who can see him. That I know of, anyways."

Raven's eyes opened and she looked around the kitchen. "Is he here?"

"Yes." Erik looked at Charles, frowning when the other man wouldn't meet his eyes. "He's right there, muttering things about time dilation and potentially being divorced from the normal time stream disrupting his ability to actually perceive time. He heard that he still had a week left, but if you're saying that they're doing this now..."

Raven nodded. "I went in and talked to Emma about four or five days ago."

"He came and told me about it last night. I never thought to actually ask how long it had seemed to be since he saw me last." Erik glanced over at Charles again, then turned back to Raven. "Please, tell me there's something I can do."

"You can contact Azazel. You can tell him that as repayment for leaving me, and this is the only time I will ever do this, tell him that helping you is what I will accept." Raven held a finger to her lips. "Tell no one I told you this, because if it goes badly, they're going to expect me to do something about you, if they find out I'm involved, they might decide it's all a scam to try and work around my brother's will or something stupid like that."

"What is your final decision on this whole thing?"

"Call in a favor on Azazel, keep my brother alive somehow, don't involve me." Raven bit her bottom lip, then nodded firmly. "I just want my brother back."

In the doorway, Charles moved to the side as Kurt came bouncing through it, teleporting a few inches every once in a while. 

"Momma!"

Raven held out her arms and Kurt teleported into them. "What's up?"

"Thought I saw uncle Charles..." the seven year old's bottom lip was set in a dangerous pout, the one that meant he was minutes away from a temper tantrum. "Saw the back of his coat goin' through the door!"

"How'd you know it was him, sweetpea?"

"Saw his gloves..." Kurt peered around the kitchen, like he suspected the adults of hiding his uncle somewhere. "Was wearin' them. Naked fingers."

With little more than a startled gasp carefully hidden in Kurt's hair, Raven met Erik's gaze and nodded again, just once more. "I'll see you later Erik."

"Raven." Erik kneeled and tried to smile nicely at her son. "Kurt."

Kurt just waved quickly, his three fingers retracting to close around his own shoulder. "Bye mister Erik."

Charles laughed from the doorway. "He's just a bit shy, don't worry about it Erik. He's still learning to trust people."

Erik waited until they were out near the car before he spoke again. "I've known your sister for years, she used to be engaged to my friend Azazel. She would occasionally speak about her brother, a doctor. She mentioned that her brother had been in an accident." his hands were shaking as he unlocked the car. A beep from his phone alerted him to a text, the noise was the one he had assigned Raven. "I should have realized who you were the moment we found out you were a doctor."

"You couldn't have known. You're brilliant, Erik, but you didn't have all the pieces of the puzzle. There was no way you could have possibly known." Charles walked through the car until he stood by Erik's side, a hand hovering over his chest. "My friend, you're being too harsh on yourself."

Erik scrubbed a hand roughly over his face, digging the heel of his palm into his eye. Charles was starting to become familiar with that motion, Erik did it whenever he didn't want to cry or if he needed an excuse for tearing up. His phone was in his hand, and when he opened the text from Raven, his mouth dropped open. "They're...It's happening tomorrow. Charles, they're pulling the plug on you tomorrow."

Charles seemed to deflate, eyes losing some of their color. "Can you spend tonight with me? I need...I want..."

"I can." Erik nodded. "I've been given instructions by your sister, but I need to plan and I need to set everything in place. I can stay with you tonight. I..."

Nodding, Charles walked back through the car and curled up on the passenger seat. "Can we go?"

"We can go."

 

XxXxX

 

They spent the night curled up on the bed together, less than a foot from each other's faces. 

Erik was fairly certain that he was babbling about some things when he couldn't think of anything else to say, but Charles took it in stride. His lips curled into an easy smile when Erik managed to make it happen. It was a good look on him, and Erik wished that he could see more of it.

When he managed to make Charles laugh, he nearly fell off the bed. 

The man was beautiful, and he would have liked to get to know him better before he...

Erik sat up, jerking the entire bed and unseating Charles for a second. "I have an idea." He rushed out of the room, snatching his phone off the edge of the desk as he ran past. It was nearly seven in the morning, but Erik still dialed Azazel's number.

"Azazel. The ghost that I've been telling you about. He's real. His name is Charles and he's going to die in about four hours unless I do something about it."

There was some grumbling on the other end of the line, but after about twenty minutes, Erik had convinced Azazel to come pick him up in an hour. He had also convinced the man to bring the van he often used as a larger focus for teleporting people and objects.

"Charles?" Erik went through the rooms of the apartment, trying to find the spirit. "Charles, I have a plan."

Charles wasn't in any of the rooms.

Erik went up to the roof, spotting him on the edge of the roof. When he got closer, Charles turned to look at him, a smile on his face. "You're going to try and save me."

"Yes." Erik joined him on the edge. "And I would appreciate it if you came with me. I know very little about maintaining someone in a coma, and you're the doctor of the two of us."

They both went silent after that, watching the traffic and people zipping around below them. When it was closing in on the time that Azazel had agreed to meet Erik at, they both spotted the bulky red van suddenly driving up. It looked like the teleporter had just chosen to appear on the street and drive a few meters forward before pulling up to the curb.

Before either of them could head downstairs, Azazel was with them on the roof, a hand curling into Erik's collar.

"Time to go, Charles." he muttered, looking around like he expected to be able to see the man. "Erik has called in this favor and I dislike waking up before it's needed."

With that, Charles leaned in closer, a hand on Erik's in an imitation of the real thing. Azazel and Erik vanished from the rooftop, leaving behind a wispy cloud of red.

 

In the van, Azazel was buckling himself in and starting it up when Erik thought of something. "You had to have known Charles, didn't you?"

"I did."

"Then why did you not tell me?"

Azazel looked at him without actually turning to face him, an incredulous look on his face. "You were supposed to date him, Raven thought you two would be a good match. The blind date that she set you up with about six months back now. That was him, and neither one of you showed up. Charles because of the accident, you because of your reluctance to let go of your wife."

Apparently tired of driving, Azazel made them appear in the hospital parking lot. "You bailed on your date, your date got into an accident and ended up being trapped in the place that he worked."

He got out of the van, Erik automatically locking it with a wave of his hand. 

"So I was meant to meet him." he turned to look at Charles, whose eyes were getting wider with every second that passed. "And by a couple of twists of fate, it never happened."

Azazel shrugged, grabbing his arm to teleport them into the hospital, to Charles's room. "You are sometimes too stubborn for your own good, Erik."

And then Erik wasn't speaking because he was looking at Charles's body again, this time with a reverence that few had ever seen. 

Erik met Azazel's eyes. "Help me get the equipment connected to the bed. We're going to move him."

"You are insane, you know that, right?" Azazel muttered as he helped him, raising the railings on the bed to keep everything from falling off. 

"W-what are you doing?"

Both of the mutants in the room turned towards the door, where a very nervous looking Hank stood. Clutched to his chest was a small stack of folders, and the blue fur on the back of his hands was standing straight up. "If you're hurting him, I won't let you!"

"Hank..." Charles groaned "Now is not the time to become assertive."

Erik shot Charles a glance, then continued what he was doing. "I'm trying to save his life. He's supposed to be pulled off of life support today in..." he glanced at his watch. "About two and a half hours. Now either get out of the way, or leave us alone."

"...I-I'm calling security." Hank nodded, as if trying to convince himself that it was the best choice. 

"Right." Erik frowned, turning to Azazel. "Would you mind?"

Suddenly they were out in the hallway behind Hank. Without any hesitation, Erik started running, keeping the bed from ramming into things with a steady hand. Charles was sitting on top of himself, keeping a careful watch on the equipment.

Out of nowhere, a man with a red visor-like thing over his eyes grabbed the back of Azazel's shirt, pulling him up short and almost yanking him off of his feet. Erik felt something metal rushing towards him and ducked in time to see someone's fist passing through the air that was now above his head. 

"Erik!"

Charles was on the ground next to him now, checking to make sure that Erik was alright. "He's Logan, he has an adamantium skeleton. His entire bone structure is coated in it. One gentle push, you can keep him away from yo-"

Erik's eyes widened as he watched Charles's hands start to fade. "Charles?"

"I'm..." Charles looked panicked, shifting as close as he could to Erik. "This..."

Erik stood upright, repelling Logan as fast as he could without actually damaging him. At least Charles looked a little more relaxed because of that. Leaning in close to Charles's body, he realized what had happened.  
In pulling Azazel away, the other security guard had unplugged the respirator that had been keeping Charles alive. 

Everyone watching seemed to collectively gasp, Erik tangling a hand in the blankets on the bed. 

"Erik..." Charles gave him a sad smile, still fading. "Thank you for trying anyways. I know it..."

"Shh..." Erik muttered, running a thumb across Charles's body's cheek. "Doesn't matter."

Leaning in, he kissed the man softly, then pulled back and turned to look at Charles again. His hands had stopped fading for a second, but when he smiled, he disappeared completely. A hand on the back of his shirt dragged him away roughly, Logan having been ignored in favor of Charles.

The few people watching turned away, all of the air seeming to be pulled from the world.

Erik closed his eyes, grinding his bottom lip between his teeth. "All of that for...Nothing." he muttered, Logan pulling him further away.

Then someone took a deep breath.

Logan dropped Erik unceremoniously on the floor, rushing over to the bed. Erik followed a second later, making it to Charles's side as his eyes opened. 

Hazy blue focusing on him, Erik grinned. "I told you I wouldn't let you die."

"...Who are you?" Charles winced at the light, groaning in pain. 

Erik pulled back, letting his hands drop to his sides as he tried to breathe. Azazel walked up to him and laid a hand on his shoulder. "I-"

"Do not speak to me, Azazel." Erik scolded, even though it lacked any sort of heat. "Let me be."

Azazel teleported him home, then disappeared.

 

XxXxX

 

"Raven?"

She peeked out of the kitchen, hands stretched out to hold up the bag of groceries she was trying to put away. "Hmm?"  
Charles Xavier stood in the middle of his living room, frowning at everything that surrounded him. "Did you take anything out of here?"

"No. The renter left everything where it was too. Didn't even scoot your stupid file cabinet around." Raven pushed the bag onto the counter completely, brushing her hands off. "Why?"

"It just feels like..." Charles bit his bottom lip. "It feels like there's something missing."

He was finally back in his own apartment, rehabilitation having left him on his feet. It was still a little difficult to walk, but the only difference between now and when he had first fallen into the coma was that now he had a cane.

In his mind, that far surpassed the wheelchair he'd had to use for a while. Raven had taken to calling him 'Professor X' and her son had picked up on it as well.

True to Raven's word, nothing was out of place, not a single item of furniture was missing. 

"It still feels like there's something missing." A noise on the roof made him frown. "Raven, I'm going to see what's on the roof. Maybe that will set my mind at ease."

"Alright. Don't fall down the stairs, okay? No one is willing to watch you go out again." She called from the kitchen. Unseen by Charles, she was smirking.

 

Charles wasn't sure what he had replied with, or if he had replied at all. Heading up the stairs to the roof had made him feel strange, like he was about to find something he'd been looking for. He could tell that there was someone up there, he could feel the edges of their mind. Whoever it was, he could tell that they were intelligent.

When he could see them, however, he saw a whip thin man, with bright green eyes and a mouth that didn't seem used to smiling.

He was setting a metal sculpture into the pot of a plant that was sitting off to the side. 

Somehow, the entire roof of Charles's apartment had been transformed. The roof itself was made to look like it was a large patch of grass, and an extra step had been added to compensate for the depth of it. There were flowers everywhere, and a small pond off to the side. There were a couple of things in pots, but for the most part everything was planted directly into the grass. In and amongst the plants were metal creatures.

The man cleared his throat awkwardly. Pulling something from his pocket he showed it to Charles. "Spare key. I just wanted to make sure that you would have your place to read and relax. You told me once that you wanted..." he cleared his throat again, breaking eye contact. "I'll go now."

"You did this?"

The man nodded, looking up for a second before looking away again. "You said that you wanted to put a garden up here and have some place to go to read and relax and enjoy the sunshine. There's a patch over there-" he gestured "That will allow for a nice bit of shade from noon onwards, in the summer. I made it so that it would, I put the back of it to the direction the sun goes down in. The rest of the roof will get plenty of light, but there's a place to hide from it if you want to."

"This is beautiful."

With a broken looking smile, the man handed him the key. "So are you. I wanted it to..." he shook his head and started down the stairs.

Or he would have, if Charles hadn't tangled their fingers together when he was handed the key.

He knew he was projecting, but Charles didn't care. A flood of images poured into his brain, and the man he was grasping looked like he was going to cry.

"Erik." Charles murmured. "I-"

"I don't want to scare you, I'll leave." Erik didn't seem to notice his name being used. "I'll just...Go."

"Please don't, my friend." Charles put a finger on Erik's chin. "I'll have to find you again, and I don't know how well that would work out now that I'm no longer an unimpeded spirit."

Erik's eyes snapped upwards, meeting Charles. "Charles?"

Instead of answering, Charles nudged Erik into a better position before pressing their lips together, thumbs on the small hint of softness in Erik's cheeks.

When the other's hands wrapped around his waist, Charles laughed into the kiss. 

"You..." Erik nearly growled against his lips. "The moment I saw you, I thought you were attractive. I started having very involved dreams about you a couple of nights in." 

Charles felt the metal in his jacket vibrating, the zipper drawing itself closed. _(I'm not cold.)_

"If you're anymore exposed up here, I'll take advantage of the privacy and act out the dreams I had." Erik muttered, ducking his head to press a kiss to Charles's jaw. "It's strange to have you in my head now."

"I can stop if you want me to."

"Don't."

_(I take it that you like it?)_

"Very much so." Erik knelt, then pulled Charles into his lap and wrapped his arms back around him. "I'm going to sit here for a moment. I hope that is alright."

"It's fine, Erik." Charles grinned, twining their fingers together, kissing Erik's knuckles. "I remember everything now. Like 

someone just dropped the information into my head."

"Your mental voice sounds exactly the same as you did when you were wandering around as a spirit." Erik murmured, nuzzling Charles's cheek. "Were you projecting?"

"That's the current working theory."

They both turned to look when they heard footsteps on the stairs. Within a couple of seconds, Raven appeared at the top, a smirk on her face. "You two alright?"

"Yes, Raven." Charles leaned around Erik and gave her a grin. "I found what was missing."

Raven laughed while Erik buried his face in Charles's neck.

 

XxXxX

 

EPILOGUE:

 

"Charles!" Hank exclaimed, a large grin on his face as he resettled his glasses on his face with one hand. In the other hand was a large present, addressed to Kurt. It was Raven and Charles's Christmas party, and Hank had been invited as he was every year. 

This year, he had apparently chosen to attend.

Wrapped around Hank's waist was a very possessive Azazel's hand.

Azazel was doing his best to look nonchalant. He was even whistling, looking anywhere but at the man who had opened the door. In his other hand he was holding a pile of gifts meant for everyone else in the party.

Charles laughed, a hand over his mouth in an attempt to muffle it. "Come on in then! Presents under the tree in the living room, drinks in the kitchen, small children in the entertainment room." he giggled helplessly, flicking the ball of his Santa hat out of his face. "Erik's being a grump in the kitchen as well. Logan is taking great pleasure in flicking paper balls at him, because he can't deflect them. I'm not sure how long the peace between them is going to last."

Hank laughed softly, face screwing up as he pictured it. When he stepped through the door, Azazel's hand still on his waist, he was still laughing. 

"Thank you for coming. Even though neither of you needed to use the plus ones that Raven decided to add to your invitations."   
Charles raised an eyebrow at the arm still around Hank. "How long has this been...?"

"Since he came to my house to apologize for the stunt at the hospital. Which kind of lead to you being here right now." Hank pushed Azazel towards the kitchen with a gentle nudge. "Go see if Lehnsherr is alright. You're his friend."

"He would tell you to call him Erik if he heard you say that." Charles informed Hank, leading the way through the house at a more sedate pace, cane tapping on the floor. 

"Why is he grumpy today?" Hank asked, "Is everything alright?"

Charles smiled. "He's indulging me. He personally doesn't celebrate Christmas, because he is Jewish. But he is willing to allow me to drag him into this, even if he won't smile about it."

Just then, three children went tearing through the room.

"Kurt! Don't terrorize them, we want them intact!" Charles called after them. "Wanda, Pietro, don't fall over, alright?"

Two slightly lisped voices called out an affirmative and Charles grinned, a ridiculously happy look on his face. 

"Those are his kids?" Hank asked, watching the three run away again, the sound of Kurt teleporting just ahead of them making him smile. "They seem sweet."

"They are." Charles's smile grew more fond as the entered the kitchen. "Erik, I think Sean is feeding the children some more sugar."

Erik stood abruptly, Azazel stopping in the middle of a sentence. Cursing in rapid fire German, Erik headed for the door, pausing to kiss Charles, tangling a hand into his hair. 

When they separated, both of them breathing heavily, Charles raised an eyebrow. _(Hmm?)_

 _'Mistletoe.'_ Erik thought back, 'Go speak to your sister before she gives poor Hank a talking to about Azazel. He's a grown man, he can take care of himself.'

_(Alright.)_

_'And stop the Summers siblings from trying to prove that they each have the superior control over their powers. I don't think that your sister's kitchen would survive the onslaught.'_

Looking at Alex and Scott where they stood with their respective partners, Charles grimaced. _(How much have they had to drink?)_

 _'Probably too much.'_ Erik kissed his cheek once more, then headed towards the children's area to put a stop to Sean and his sugary masterminding.

A paper ball flew past his head.

Logan fell over not a second later, Erik's hand at his side the only telltale sign that he had done anything to the man.

With a smile, Charles hugged his sister. 

"Happy Holidays, everyone." he muttered, hearing Erik's thoughts about tying Sean to a tree with a bike chain and leaving him to hang upside down for a while.

Now he had a family.

**Author's Note:**

> EDIT:: Alright, so Ao3 messed up the format a LOT, so it should be better now. Hopefully it is.
> 
> I have absolutely no idea what made me want to write this and I am so sorry that I am pushing it on you.
> 
> That said, I actually like what ended up being written.
> 
> But still...
> 
> I guess I give it a large WTF shrug and move on with my life.
> 
> If any of my Hobbit fanfiction people are reading this, I am so sorry I haven't posted the chapter yet, I am having an insane life and I just got uprooted from my city so everything is going to be even worse right now and I swear that I will post it as soon as I can.


End file.
